Malaysia
Post Independence 1963-1980 After gaining independence in 1963, Malaysia suffered some heavy strikes. The first one was the separation of Brunei. In the early years of independence Malaysia was involved in conflict with Indonesia. During that in 1965 Singapore declared its independence, which again was heavy strike for Malaysia. One year later, in 1966, Philippines surprisingly occupied and annexed Sabah from Malaysia. British and Malay soldiers surrendered. In 1968 a ceasefire had been signed between Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, but it does not resolved the Sabah question. This topic during the years was allays on high tensions, but was not resolved. After the May 13 racial riots of 1969, the controversial New Economic Policy—intended to increase proportionately the share of the economic pie of the bumpers ("indigenous people", which includes the majority Malays, but not always the indigenous population) as compared to other ethnic groups—was launched by Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak. Malaysia has since maintained a delicate ethno-political balance, with a system of government that has attempted to combine overall economic development with political and economic policies that promote equitable participation of all races. 1980-1990 Between the 1980s and the mid 1990s, Malaysia experienced significant economic growth under the premiership of Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad. The period saw a shift from an agriculture-based economy to one based on manufacturing and industry in areas such as computers and consumer electronics. It was during this period, too, that the physical landscape of Malaysia has changed with the emergence of numerous mega-projects. The most notable of these projects are the Petronas Twin Towers (at the time the tallest building in the world), KL International Airport (KLIA), North-South Expressway, the Sepang F1 Circuit, the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), the Bakun hydroelectric dam and Putrajaya, a new federal administrative capital.In 1985 Malaysia along with Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and Philippines joined SEAFORCE. This military organization was created to protect the above nations from nations like China, Indochina and USSR. But SEAFORCE members were having many inside disputes which continue and today about territorial claims. In 1986 Japan jointed SEAFORCE and changes the name to PACFORCE. 1990- recent days Now Malaysia under the strong leadership of Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad is progressing fast to new horizons. It seems finally there is stability and safety in the Federation. The problem now is the threat of the free markets, so propagandized by the West. But fortunately PM Mahathir bin Mohamad will manage to keep Malaysia safe from “such threats”, as he calls them. He had put himself a goal to put the big number of foreign companies in Malay hands, so Malaysians could control the Malaysian business. He now has big plans how to continue the progress of his nation and how to make it stronger. But only time can show how would he deal with it. Government and domestic politics Malaysia is a federal constitutional elective monarchy. The federal head of state of Malaysia is the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, commonly referred to as the King of Malaysia. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong is elected to a five-year term among the nine hereditary Sultans of the Malay states; the other four states, which have titular Governors, do not participate in the selection.[39 The system of government in Malaysia is closely modeled on that of Westminster parliamentary system, a legacy of British colonial rule. In practice however, more power is vested in the executive branch of government than in the legislative, and the judiciary has been weakened by sustained attacks by the government during the Mahathir era. Since independence in 1957, Malaysia has been governed by a multi-party coalition known as the Barisan Nasional (formerly known as the Alliance). Legislative power is divided between federal and state legislatures. The bicameral parliament consists of the lower house, the House of Representatives or Dewan Rakyat (literally the "Chamber of the People") and the upper house, the Senate or Dewan Negara (literally the "Chamber of the Nation"). The 219-member House of Representatives are elected from single-member constituencies that are drawn based on population for a maximum term of 5 years. All 70 Senators sit for 3-year terms; 26 are elected by the 13 state assemblies, 2 representing the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur, 1 each from federal territories of Labuan and Putrajaya, and 40 are appointed by the king. Besides the Parliament at the federal level, each state has a unicameral state legislative chamber whose members are elected from single-member constituencies. Parliamentary elections are held at least once every five years. Foreign Relations Malaysia during the years had quite bad relations with its neighbors, but with the creation of PACFORCE they slightly improved. Today they reached levels which can not be further improved unless the old disputes are resolved. Disputes like Sabah. The relations with UK had cooled with the leadership of Mahathir bin Mohamad. But today both nations agreed that their nations can progress together and promised that they will host several meetings. The firs should be in February, 1990. USA and Malaysia don’t have good political relations, due to the support of USA to Phillipines in their invasion of Sabah. But fortunately the economic relations are great and this can be the basic of better diplomatic relations. But this is unlikely to happen as long as PM is Mahathir bin Mohamad because of his negative view of the west. The relations of China are improving since Malaysia is multy ethnical nation and the Chinese are the second biggest ethnic group. This of course had possitive effect of the relations between the both nations, but PM Mahathir bin Mohamad is not very possitive to those ethnic groups, because of this extra right views. Again here the economic relations are more than good, but diplomatic are not growing as faster as they should.